Iowa State athletic director announces standalone wrestling facility for fall of 2025

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard has announced plans for a new standalone wrestling facility. Pollard made the announcement on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

According to Pollard’s post, the facility would be set to open in the fall of 2025. This new, standalone wrestling facility is currently in the fundraising stage and has an estimated price tag of about $20 million, according to coach Kevin Dresser.

The location of the facility would be the Iowa Attack building, directly next to the Sukup Basketball Complex a few miles off-campus.

The building has not yet been purchased, Dresser said, but Pollard's post suggests a fairly high level of confidence the deal will get done.

In the video, posted on YouTube by IAWrestle, the building shows six mats in the center of the building, weight rooms, workout rooms, lounges and other modern amenities.

Dresser said the building would not only be one of the premier facilities in college wrestling, but also will serve as a "museum of wrestling" of sorts with photos of previous team and individual champions from Iowa State displayed throughout the building.

"We're going to get there," Dresser said. "I'm confident we've got the people behind us, it's just the matter of putting the pieces of the puzzle together."

This facility is different from the one announced earlier this year. The original plan was to renovate Lied Recreation Athletic Center, which housed both the wrestling and track and field programs for Iowa State. The plan was to renovate their spaces and add about 16,000 square feet of additional space on the southeast corner of the building.

It’s unclear what will now happen with that project.

A standalone facility for wrestling would match that of the in-state rival Iowa Hawkeyes, who are currently progressing on a facility near Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That project has topped $31 million dollars and will have around 38,500 square feet when completed.

This would be one of a number of projects the Cyclones have taken on in recent years under Pollard, such as the Jack Trice Stadium East Gateway Bridge, CYTown and others.

Dresser said he and his staff are currently fundraising for the project. He has had people reach out directly to him looking to potentially pitch in over the last couple of weeks since rolling this out. Exact dollar amounts that will come from the athletic department and from fundraising have yet to be determined.

The commitment from Pollard to secure a standalone facility is something that Dresser sees as a huge positive for collegiate wresting.

"It's nice when the wrestling world sees an AD that's so invested into wrestling in this day and age," Dresser said.

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State athletic director announces standalone wrestling facility